Mystery of DB Cooper | Man who Vanished in the Sky! | Dhruv Rathee

Summary

On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight, claiming he had a bomb. He demanded $200,000 and 4 parachutes, which the airline agreed to provide when the plane landed. After the passengers exited, Cooper jumped from the rear stairs with the cash strapped to him and was never seen again. Despite an extensive search, the FBI could not conclusively identify Cooper or determine his fate after the daring jump. To this day, the Cooper case remains the only unsolved airplane hijacking in U.S. history, capturing public fascination for decades.

Takeaways

• 😲 On November 24, 1971, a man named Dan Cooper hijacked a 30-minute flight from Portland to Seattle, demanding $200,000 and 4 parachutes.
• 😃 The airline president decided to cooperate with Cooper's demands to avoid negative publicity.
• 🛫 After securing the money and parachutes, Cooper jumped out of the rear exit of the Boeing 727 while it was flying.
• 👮‍♂️ An extensive 45-year FBI investigation could not conclusively identify Cooper or determine his fate after the hijacking.
• 🤔 Circumstantial evidence suggests Cooper may have survived the jump despite the challenges.
• 🤑 In 1980, some of the stolen cash was found deteriorating along the Columbia River.
• 😎 Cooper's hijacking inspired several copycat hijackings, all of which were solved unlike his mystery.
• 🕵️‍♂️ The FBI investigated over 800 suspects but could not positively identify DB Cooper.
• ⚖️ Main suspects like Richard McCoy Jr. and Robert Rackstraw were eventually ruled out by the FBI.
• 🌫 The identity of DB Cooper and the outcome of his hijacking remain an unsolved mystery.

Q & A

What were DB Cooper's demands during the hijacking?

Cooper demanded $200,000 in cash, four parachutes, and for the plane to be refueled after landing in Seattle before taking off again.

Why did the airline president agree to cooperate with DB Cooper?

The airline president wanted to avoid negative publicity and reputation damage, so he agreed to cooperate secretly instead of resisting Cooper's demands.

How did Dan Cooper become known as DB Cooper?

A news reporter misheard the hijacker's name as DB Cooper and published it that way. The incorrect name stuck in the media afterwards.

What evidence suggests Cooper may have survived the jump?

Other copycat hijackers survived similar jumps in worse conditions. Also, Cooper seemed to have parachuting knowledge when reviewing the gear.

Where did the found money trace back to?

Some of the ransom money was found 8 years later near the Washougal River, validating a pilot's theory of Cooper's drop zone.

What clues did the tie and tie clip provide?

Microscopic particles on the tie clip suggested Cooper may have worked at an aeronautical or metal manufacturing company.

Who was Richard McCoy and why was he considered a suspect?

McCoy did a similar copycat hijacking months later, but was ruled out because evidence showed he was in Las Vegas during Cooper's hijacking.

Who was Robert Rackstraw and why was he considered a suspect?

Rackstraw was a veteran with a sketchy past including arrests and aircraft theft. His face matched sketches, but evidence clearing him led the FBI to drop him as a suspect.

Has the Cooper case been solved?

No, the 1971 hijacking remains an unsolved mystery with no confirmation of Cooper's identity or definitive proof of his demise.

What happened to the money that was given to Cooper?

Only $5,800 of the $200,000 has ever been found, despite serial numbers being recorded and published.

Outlines

00:00

😲 The Hijacking of Flight 305

On November 24, 1971, a man named Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, which was en route from Portland to Seattle. He claimed to have a bomb and demanded $200,000 cash and 4 parachutes. The airline agreed to his demands. After the passengers were released in Seattle, Cooper jumped out of the rear exit of the plane with the cash strapped to him, somewhere over southwest Washington, and was never found or identified.

05:00

👨‍✈️ Cooper's Daring Mid-Air Escape

After getting the money and parachutes, Cooper ordered the crew to take off again with only him on board along with Tina Mucklow. He directed the pilots to fly towards Mexico at 10,000 feet. Shortly after takeoff, the rear staircase warning light came on indicating it had been opened by Cooper to jump out with the cash into the rainy, windy night, despite wearing just a suit and tie.

10:03

🌲 Searching for Cooper and the Cash

The FBI searched the area where they estimated Cooper may have landed near Lake Merwin, but could not find him, any parachute remnants, or the cash. In 1980, some of the ransom cash was found by a child buried in the sand in the Columbia River upstream from Portland, proving Cooper had landed there after his jump.

15:04

🕵️‍♂️ Who Was the Mysterious Hijacker?

The FBI investigated over 800 suspects trying to uncover Cooper's identity but the case remains unsolved. Some notable suspects were Richard McCoy and Robert Rackstraw but evidence cleared both. Cooper's tie clip provided clues he likely worked in aeronautics but his identity is still unknown even today.

20:05

📺 New Theories and an Unsolved Mystery

Even after 45 years of investigation before the case was closed in 2016, Cooper's true identity was never discovered. In 2020, a TV producer accused Rackstraw again with more evidence but Rackstraw denied claims before passing away a year later. To this day, the famous D.B. Cooper case remains an unsolved mystery with many lingering questions.

25:06

😮‍💨 Recapping the Bizarre Hijacking

In this recap, the narrator asks viewers what they think happened to Cooper and whether he could have survived the jump. The strange case spawned many copycat hijackings afterwards where the criminals survived after parachuting from planes with stolen cash, unlike the mysterious outcome for the initial perpetrator DB Cooper in 1971.

Keywords

💡Hijacking

The act of seizing control of an aircraft while in flight through threats or force. This is the central event that kicks off the DB Cooper mystery, as he hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 on November 24, 1971.

💡FBI investigation

The extensive search by the FBI to find DB Cooper or clues to his identity and whereabouts after his infamous hijacking and parachute jump. A key aspect of the mystery is why the FBI could not solve this case despite deploying significant resources.

💡Bailout

DB Cooper's dramatic exit from the rear stairs of the hijacked plane using a parachute while mid-flight. This daring bailout into the darkness added to the legend and mystery around DB Cooper's successful getaway.

💡Copycat hijackings

Similar hijackings inspired by Cooper's case, where hijackers also parachuted mid-flight and survived. This demonstrated that Cooper too could have survived the jump despite the challenges.

💡Possible suspects

People like Richard McCoy and Robert Rackstraw who were considered by FBI and investigators as potential candidates for being DB Cooper. But lack of concrete evidence prevented resolving Cooper's identity.

💡$20 bills

Part of the ransom money given to Cooper was in $20 denominations, with recorded serial numbers. The discovery of some of these bills in 1980 reinforced that Cooper had indeed landed near the Washougal River area.

💡Hypothermia

The risk of exposure and dangerously low body temperatures Cooper faced given the frigid, high-altitude conditions when he parachuted. The cold could have killed him even if the jump didn't.

💡Anchoring bias

The cognitive tendency to overly rely on the first information received, which led to Cooper's name being inaccurately reported and remembered as "D.B. Cooper." This demonstrates how false facts can displace the truth.

💡Air stair

The set of retractable stairs at the rear exit of the hijacked Boeing 727 aircraft, which Cooper used to make his infamous exit jump with the cash and parachutes in tow.

💡Unidentified fingerprints

The FBI recovered 66 fingerprints from the hijacked plane that could not be matched to Cooper or any crew/passengers. This key forensic evidence failed to reveal Cooper's true identity.

Highlights

A man named D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane and demanded $200,000 in cash and parachutes.

The airline president decided to cooperate with Cooper's demands to avoid bad publicity.

Cooper jumped out of the plane's rear exit stairs with the money and parachutes.

A reporter misheard the hijacker's name as D.B. instead of Dan, leading to the enduring mystery.

Later copycat hijackers used the same method as Cooper and survived, suggesting he could have too.

The FBI spread serial numbers of the cash bundles hoping to track where Cooper spent it.

In 1980, a boy found $5,800 of Cooper's cash on a riverbank, shifting the search area.

Experts examined particles on Cooper's tie clip to deduce he likely worked in aerospace manufacturing.

Over 800 suspects were investigated, with 20 seriously considered and a few having intriguing connections.

A Vietnam veteran hijacked a plane months later in eerily similar fashion but was ruled out as Cooper.

Another suspect matched sketches and had a questionable background but no hard evidence tied him to Cooper.

In 2016 the FBI closed the decades-long investigation without ever conclusively solving the mystery.

To this day, Cooper's identity, fate after the jump, and location of most of the money remain unknown.

Several later hijackers survived similar jumps, raising the question if Cooper could have too.

If you want to listen to flight mystery audiobooks, check out the Kuku FM link in the description.

Transcripts

Hello, friends!

24th November, 1971.

In America, a Northwest Orient Airlines flight

took off from Portland.

This is a small, 30-minute flight

to Seattle city nearby.

Not many passengers were on this flight.

It was carrying only 36 passengers and 6 crew members.

But these passengers were unaware that

a hijacker was present on this flight.

A man named D.B. Cooper.

The hijacker looked like a normal businessman.

He was dressed like that.

A business suit, white shirt, and black pants.

He must have been in his mid-forties.

He intentionally sat in the last row of the plane.

Seat number 18E.

As soon as the plane took off,

this guy introduced himself to an air hostess.

He mentions his name, Dan Cooper.

The hostess's name was Florence Schaffner.

And with a big smile, he handed a note to the air hostess.

Schaffner was a 23-year-old woman

who thought that this man was trying to flirt with her.

So, she took that note

and kept it with her without reading it.

Seeing this, Cooper told her,

that she should read the note.

He said, that he had a b0mb.

When Schaffner opened the note,

it was clearly written in neat handwriting,

"Miss, I have a b0mb in my briefcase

and I want you to sit by me."

Schaffner quietly sat next to Cooper,

but she still couldn't believe that

he actually had a bomb.

So Cooper opened his suitcase to show it to her.

Some red cylinders, wires,

and a big cylindrical battery were in the suitcase.

There was no doubt that it was a b0mb.

Cooper made his demands to the air hostess.

He wanted $200,000 by 5 pm that evening.

That too in cash.

He wanted all that cash in a bag

along with 2 parachutes in the back and 2 parachutes in the front.

When they eventually landed,

he wanted to have a fuel truck ready to refuel the plane.

He warned her against trying anything strange

threatening to blow up the plane otherwise.

The other passengers on the plane were unaware of this

and Air Hostess Schaffner didn't want

the other passengers to know.

She quietly went into the cockpit

and showed Cooper's note to the pilots.

Another Air Hostess, Tina Mucklow was informed about this

and she sat beside Cooper.

With the help of these two air hostesses,

the contact between the plane's cockpit and Cooper could be maintained.

The pilots informed the air traffic controller

and soon the news reached the president of the airline,

Donald Nairob.

He was the decision-maker

and he made an interesting decision.

He told the staff to ensure full compliance with Cooper's demands.

To fulfil all demands made by this hijacker.

After coordinating with the FBI,

he talked to a Seattle bank to arrange the money.

The bank had a huge bundle of money for such emergencies.

But there was something special about this bundle of money.

We will talk about it later in the video.

But you must be wondering

why did the airline's president

decide to cooperate with the hijackers?

The reason behind this was Reputation.

The airline's president didn't want

the news of the hijack to spread all over the world

leading to heavy losses for his company.

So to keep this issue under wraps,

he was willing to fulfil the demands of the hijackers.

The only problem was that

they needed some time to arrange the money

but this flight was only supposed to be half an hour long.

So the pilots were told that

instead of landing the plane,

they were to keep circling around Seattle

until they could arrange the money on the ground.

This half-hour flight gradually became 3 hours long.

Passengers were still unaware of what was happening.

Flight pilots announced that

they were facing minor technical difficulties,

causing the delay.

The other passengers believed this.

Finally, this flight landed at Seattle's airport at 5.46 pm.

According to Cooper's instructions,

the plane was parked far from the main terminal building.

One airline representative approached the plane

with a bag of money and the parachutes.

When the 4 parachutes and the bag of money

was given to Cooper,

he allowed the passengers and flight attendants

to leave the plane

except Tina Mucklow.

After this, according to the plan, the plane was refuelled

and it takes off again.

This time, only the pilots were on the plane

along with Cooper and Tina.

Cooper started giving instructions to the pilots again.

For the destination of the flight, the speed of the flight,

down to the very angle.

He directs them to fly the plane towards Mexico City.

At an altitude of 10,000 feet in the air.

With the wings positioned at 15°.

As for the plane's speed

he wanted to fly as slow as possible.

The pilots told Cooper that

flying with these configurations,

would make it difficult for them to reach Mexico City.

Because there wasn't enough fuel in the plane.

But Cooper was not worried about it.

Cooper told them to fly as he directed.

Friends, what happened next is completely unbelievable.

No less than a film's story.

Cooper told Tina to go to the cockpit and lock the door.

Cooper was the only person outside the cockpit.

He took out his parachutes and prepared to dive.

A few minutes later,

a warning light flashed in the cockpit,

indicating that the rear staircase had been deployed.

This was a unique feature in these planes back then,

Boeing 727 planes had an aft staircase at the back.

In the photos, you can see how

the stairs deployed from the back.

Cooper deployed these stairs

and jumped out with the parachutes and the money.

The pilots and the air hostesses did not see this happening

because they were locked in the cockpit

and back then there was no hole on the cockpit door

through which they could see outside.

But at 8.13 pm, pilots noticed that

the back part of the plane suddenly tilted upwards

and the pilots had to recalibrate and re-level the plane.

After this, the pilots flew the plane to Nevada, and landed in the city of Reno.

The police were informed

and they investigated the plane.

But they didn't find any trace of Cooper.

The only things the police could find was a tie

with a clip on it,

and some torn parts of the parachutes,

which Cooper had used to cover the bag of money.

Apart from this, they found some personal items belonging to Cooper,

like the cigarettes he was smoking on the plane.

Smoking was allowed in aeroplanes back then.

Investigators investigated everything thoroughly

and they found 66 unidentified fingerprints.

Fingerprints belonging to neither the crew members

nor to the other passengers.

But the suitcase that had the b0mb,

the bag of money, and the parachutes,

were all missing, like Cooper.

From that day, the FBI started its investigation to find Cooper,

but no trace of Cooper was found.

This investigation went on for 45 years.

It was officially closed in 2016,

but the answers to many questions

are still unanswered.

This is the only hijack in history

that no one has been able to solve.

One of the greatest mysteries for the FBI.

Who was Cooper?

What happened to him?

Was the money ever recovered by the police?

There are too many questions.

Let's try to unravel this mystery.

2 things are very interesting about this incident.

First, during this hijack,

no other passenger knew that their plane was hijacked.

Neither was anyone k!lled

nor was anyone injured in this hijack.

Many people claim this was due to Tina Mucklow.

They call her the hero of this hijack

because she was the one to ensure that

Cooper remained calm throughout the flight,

his demands were met,

and no panic situation could be created

which could cause a ruckus or get someone injured.

The co-pilot of the plane Rataczak later said,

"She was so calm and cool and collected,

I could not think of anyone

that would have been better

to have sitting next to someone who would do a criminal act like [this]."

The second interesting thing was that

the name DB Cooper.

As I told you in the beginning,

that guy's name was actually Dan Cooper.

But today, most people

call this the Mystery of DB Cooper.

How did Dan become DB?

This is because of a mistake by a news reporter.

Back then, there was a reporter named James Long

who was late for meeting his deadline.

So, in a hurry,

while talking to his police source,

he misheard the name.

The police said that

the hijacker's name was Dan Cooper

but this reporter heard DB Cooper

and used this name for his news report.

This report was picked up by other journalists

while talking about this news in their newspapers and channels

started using the name DB Cooper.

[DB Cooper]

This is how the name of the hijacker changed.

In psychology, this phenomenon is known as Anchoring,

Anchoring is a cognitive bias that states,

humans rely too heavily on the first piece of information.

The first piece of news you hear about any breaking news,

you have the tendency to believe it.

In 2013, a joke theory related to this was published,

Brandolini's Law,

also called the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle.

It states that correcting this anchoring effect can be very difficult.

"The amount of energy needed to correct bullshit,

is of much higher magnitude than to produce it."

In broad terms,

spreading lies is relatively easier,

but having people believe the truth to correct that lie,

is much more difficult.

But in case of Cooper,

it wasn't a huge mistake.

Only the name was wrong.

Anyway, a hijacker shouldn't be expected to use his real name.

FBI's initial investigations showed that

when Cooper jumped out of the plane,

Cooper had strapped the cash around him.

The cash weighed around 10 kilos.

Cooper used two parachutes to jump,

one strapped in front and one behind.

The police had an idea of the area in which Cooper jumped.

He jumped in the southwest area of Washington State.

There were pine forests, lakes, and canyons in the area,

bears lived there.

So, in the beginning, the investigators said that

there was no chance of Cooper surviving.

Jumping from a height of 10,000 feet

and in pitch darkness.

It was completely dark at 8 in the night.

Second, the clothes that Cooper was wearing

were not at all suitable for jumping.

Jumping in pants and shirt

when it was raining outside.

With heavy, black clouds in the sky,

at the height of 5,000 feet.

It means that Cooper could not see anything while falling.

On top of that, the wind speed was important too.

It was estimated that when Cooper jumped,

he had to be travelling at the speed of 320 km per hour.

The United States Parachute Association believed that

there was another problem on top of all this,

the cold water.

In November, the temperature in this American region is very low.

If Cooper had fallen into a lake,

it would have been almost impossible to escape from there.

In such cold water, hypothermia would have set in within a few minutes.

And on top of that, the weight strapped on Cooper,

would have made it more difficult to swim.

But despite all these,

some such reasons surfaced later,

which force us to think that

perhaps Cooper survived this jump.

The reason for this was that after Cooper's incident,

there were many similar incidents.

When Cooper's hijacking made news all across the country,

more hijackers thought of using the same tactics.

At least 5 people did the same copycat hijackings.

And all these 5 people

survived after jumping off the plane.

One of them was Martin McNally,

who hijacked a plane on 24th June 1972.

He used the exact same modus operandi.

He demanded a sum of $500,000.

When the plane took off,

they used a parachute to jump off like Cooper.

In McNally's case, the speed of the plane was around 400-500 km per hour

when he jumped.

This was twice the speed of Cooper's dive.

But still, McNally survived his jump

using only a reserve parachute.

Another similar hijack was done in January 1972

by Richard Lapoint.

He wore similar clothes in January,

jumped and landed safely in the snow.

It's irrelevant that these two hijackers

were later caught by the police.

That's how we know their stories.

But the FBI thought that

if these people could jump

in conditions that were worse than when Cooper jumped,

and they managed to survive,

then it was possible that DB Cooper survived that night.

Especially if you consider that

when Tina Mucklow gave the parachutes to Cooper,

there were instructions on how to use them.

But Cooper told Tina that

she didn't need to read the instructions.

He knew how to use them.

So now, since the FBI started assuming that

Cooper could be alive,

their next task was to

search the place where he had jumped.

Actually, the police had started searching those jungles the day after the hijack.

The police were looking for a body, a torn piece of the parachutes,

or a $20 bill.

At the beginning of the video, I told you

that the money given to Cooper was special.

The special thing was that

there were $20 bills.

10,000 notes of $20,

$200,000 in total.

And the serial numbers of these notes

were noted down by the bank.

The FBI spread the list of serial numbers throughout the country.

From banks to casinos,

everyone was told to inform the FBI if they got the notes of those serial numbers.

But it was becoming more and more difficult for the investigators to find Copper

because where could the search area be drawn?

There were many variables.

What was the wind speed while the plane was flying?

How dark was it?

What was the exact location of the plane

when Cooper jumped?

After jumping, at what height did Cooper deploy his parachutes?

And in which directions could the parachutes have gone?

The investigators' best estimate was that

it would have landed somewhere near Lake Merwin in Washington State.

The FBI ran a practical experiment.

If we fly the same aircraft with the same configurations

and push out a 91 kg sled through the stairs,

based on where the sled landed,

we can get a better idea of

the area where Cooper could have landed.

Due to this, door-to-door searches were conducted in this area.

The local farmhouses,

the police used to knock on every door

to investigate and to ask people.

Petrol boats were running on Lake Mervin and Lake Yale.

One company used their submarine for the search.

200 ft under the Lake Mervin,

they continued to look for him.

They wanted to find either the money, a piece of the parachute or a body

but they couldn't find anything.

Eventually, the investigators

published the serial numbers of the notes in the local newspaper.

They ran the news that the first person to find a note from those serial numbers

would be awarded $1,000.

This offer remained for 3 years

but not a single note could be found.

Now let's skip to 1979.

8 years since the hijack.

Suddenly a pilot contacted the FBI.

His name was Tom Bohan and he worked for Continental Airlines.

The night of the hijack,

4 minutes behind Cooper's aircraft and 4,000 feet above,

another aircraft was flying,

which was being flown by Tom.

Tom recalled the storm that night,

and said that he had never seen such a storm in his entire career.

He said that the FBI's calculations

regarding Cooper's drop zone

were off by 80°.

Since he was on a plane that night,

he had a better idea of where Copper landed.

He told FBI that

they should be searching near the drainage area of the Washougal River.

A few months later, Tom's suspicion was proven right.

An 8-year-old boy

found some $20 notes lying on the bank of the Columbia River.

All of these were $20 bills,

and some of them were still in bundles held together with rubber bands.

"Hijacker DB Cooper,

the first break in the only unsolved airplane hijacking in United States history

came on a Columbia River beach.

An 8-year-old boy dug up the shreds of

$3,000 on Sunday!"

As soon as the police checked the serial numbers of these notes,

it was immediately confirmed that

this was the same money from years ago,

that was given to Cooper.

Another search was conducted around this place

but they couldn't find all of the money.

In total, they could find only $5,800.

And Tom's hypothesis

of Cooper landing in this area

was proved correct.

Tom had said that Cooper must have landed somewhere near the Washougal river.

And the money found was downstream of the same river.

After this, the FBI searched the area in the hope of

finding a body or some pieces of the parachute.

But they couldn't find anything.

FBI agent Richard Tosaw believed that

Cooper must have drowned in the cold water of the river that night.

An interesting fact here was that

the 8-year-old boy who found these notes

was given some portions of these notes as a reward.

And in 2008, when the boy grew up,

he sold 15 notes in an online auction.

And in return for these $20 notes,

he got $37,000.

Because Cooper's case was so popular all over the world

people were ready to pay such a high amount for these notes.

Another big question that arises is that

regardless of what happened to Cooper after jumping from the plane,

who was Cooper actually?

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Now let's get back to the topic.

We must have some background information

about where this guy came from

and what was his identity.

The FBI did not have much to help answer this question.

There was a tie and tie clip left behind by Cooper.

That tie clip was actually golden

and in that tie clip,

they found some specific microscopic particles.

In March 2009, a research team

started researching these microscopic particles

using new technology.

There was a palaeontologist on this team,

a scientific illustrator,

and a metallurgist.

They used electron microscopy to examine these particles.

Some portions of the tie-clip were of unalloyed titanium,

with traces of aluminium, and titanium antimony alloy.

Their findings suggested that

Cooper worked in a chemical or metal manufacturing plant

or in an aeronautical engineering company.

Maybe he worked in Boeing itself.

Because the unalloyed titanium that was used in the tie-clip,

back then, it was used in aircraft fabrication facilities.

"The Periodical Table of clue, say scientists,

suggest that Cooper had access to a manufacturing company

that made airplanes.

Like the one he jumped from.

Perhaps a company with a connection to Boeing."

In the first year of the investigation,

FBI talked to the passengers and flight crew

to make a sketch of Cooper's face.

What did Cooper look like?

The first sketch created by 28th November 1971, looked like this.

But Air Hostess Schaffer and many witnesses said that

it was not an accurate representation.

It took another year to make a new sketch.

This wasn't very accurate either.

And on 2nd January 1973,

the FBI made their third and final sketch of Cooper.

After seeing this new sketch,

an air hostess said that this photo was accurate.

Looking at this drawing, it can be easily said that

Cooper looked like this.

Dan Cooper's real face

and his possible profession

was revealed to the world.

Many people started making new theories

about his identity.

About who Cooper was.

Larry Carr, who had led the investigative team from 2006-2009

believed that Cooper was an aircraft cargo loader in the Air Force.

Because cargo loaders were given basic jump training.

How to wear parachutes,

how to deploy parachutes.

And even on the working of the plane,

how to deploy the stairs in the plane,

they know all this.

Based on these descriptions,

the FBI released a list of more than 800 suspects.

800 people,

any of them could be DB Cooper.

But 20 of them were seriously considered.

2-3 of them have interesting stories.

One of them was Richard McCoy,

an army veteran of the Vietnam War.

5 months after the Cooper's hijack,

he hijacked a plane

in a manner eerily similar to Cooper's.

A Boeing 727 plane,

he demanded 4 parachutes and $500,000.

"The young man wanted $500,000

and requested 4 parachutes."

After taking the money, he deployed the rear stairs,

and jumped.

But the only difference was that

just two days after the hijack,

the FBI found him and arrested him.

He was sentenced to 45 years in jail

and the FBI thought that he was Cooper.

And that this was his second attempt at hijacking.

"He was arrested here in his home in Provo, Utah,

early this morning.

When the FBI men came,

he did not resist."

In 1991, a book was published,

DB Cooper, The Real McCoy.

Written by former FBI agent, Russell Caleme.

This book states that when McCoy's family

was shown the tie and tie clip belonging to Cooper,

they believed that those were McCoy's.

But when McCoy was asked

if he was DB Cooper,

he refused to admit or deny it.

After spending 2 years in jail,

McCoy attempted a jailbreak

which led to a shootout

in which he was killed.

After hearing all this, you may feel that

the mystery is solved.

But there are more twists in our story.

Today, the FBI does not officially consider McCoy as DB Cooper.

There are 2 major reasons behind this.

First, based on the sketch they made,

the description of DB Cooper does not match McCoy.

Second, the FBI later found evidence

of McCoy's whereabouts during the night of Cooper's hijacking.

He was in Las Vegas.

The next day, he was at his home with his family.

Since there is evidence of this,

it is clear that

McCoy cannot be DB Cooper.

The second suspect was

a Vietnam War veteran named Robert Rackstraw.

He was arrested multiple times for fraud,

aircraft theft, and possession of explosives.

But he was always found not guilty after the arrest.

TV producer Thomas Colbert wrote a book in 2016,

The Last Master Outlaw.

To prove that Rackstraw was DB Cooper.

He made a documentary on History Channel,

DB Cooper: Case Closed

where he said the same thing.

Colbert worked with a team of 40 people,

including many former FBI agents.

All of them believed that Rackstraw was the real DB Cooper.

What is the evidence for this?

When FBI began the investigation in the 1970s,

Rackstraw was high on the list of initial suspects.

In those days, Rackstraw used to give joke comments to the media

on the possibility that he was the hijacker.

However, many years later,

he denied these claims.

His face matched the sketches.

But the FBI let him go after 1979

and removed him from the suspect list

because they couldn't get substantial evidence.

TV producer Colbert believed that

the FBI should have kept investigating this guy.

With more FBI investigation,

they could have uncovered the evidence.

While on 11th July 2016,

Colbert launched his new book on DB Cooper,

the next day, on 12th July 2016,

the FBI closed the case.

In 2016, Rackstraw was 73 years old

and because of the allegations against him in this book,

he lost his job.

Later in 2019,

he passed away due to natural causes.

So, friends, we are back at the same point.

Even today, this mystery of DB Cooper

is an unsolved mystery.

No one knows who was DB Cooper,

where did he come from

and where did he go.

Now that you know about this mystery, what do you think?

That night when DB Cooper jumped off the plane,

could Cooper survive that jump or not?

Write in the comments below.

It is quite surprising that

after Cooper's hijacking,

there were many similar hijackings.

But in all those hijackings,

the hijackers who used parachutes to jump off the plane,

first of all, he always survived.

And second, he was always caught by the police or FBI.

But what about Cooper?

If you liked this video,

I have made more videos on such mysteries.

I created a playlist of mystery videos.

Click here to watch that playlist.

Or you can watch Mona Lisa's mystery

by clicking here.

Thank you very much!